New iPhone 5 ‘mold engineering’ pictures coming from China just hit the blogosphere, and seem to confirm most iPhone 5 rumors heard so far.
The pictures, published by iDealsChina, show a new touch panel that looks very similar to the one found on previous generation iPhones, with one major difference: the size of the iPhone screen cutout is clearly larger, in order to accommodate the upcoming device’s display, an alleged oversized 4-inch screen specifically designed for the new phone.

We just got what appears to be mold engineering drawings for iPhone 5. These would be used by case designers to create plastic, TPU, aluminum, silicone and leather cases. A while back we hear rumors that iPhone 5 would have a curved back but these images show iPhone 5 with the same form factor as iPhone 4 but with an edge to edge screen.

Note that the pictures imply that the alleged iPhone 5 front faceplate pictures leaked last month are indeed legitimate.
Chinese suppliers involved with Apple’s supply chain regularly release early designs such as this one, without any explicit – or implicit – authorization from Apple. For instance, pictures of early iPad 2 cases proved to be extremely accurate, and the iPad 2 mockups seen at CES turned out to be incredibly close to the final iPad 2 design.
The originator of the pictures, iDealsChina, has an excellent track record when it comes to pictures of unreleased Apple products, as the site leaked several early engineering designs over the last couple of years. For instance, the site was the first to release early pictures of the fourth-generation iPod Nano, months before the device hit store shelves.